More sunshine...

Saturday, out with the gang.

Wonderful sunshine, spring blossom everywhere, and nine volunteers. What more could you want?

We headed for Broadway, for a number of tasks. As this coincided with the arrival of the service train we parked up, on top of the embankment, and watched the run round. 

Three people remained in Winchcombe yard and trained themselves onn the mini digger, and at the end of the day we found that they had made a great loading platform out of spent ballast, by the door to the GUV.

 

The other six took the Interflon kit to the northern loop turnout, anmd started greasing fishplates.

On the way there we admired the work of the canopy gang, who had spent Wednesday bedding in window cills, and erecting all but one of the window frames along the front.

The building appeared to have made one giant leap forward.

 

 

 

 

At 11 o'clock we called in at the cafe, to see if they had any refreshments for us.

 

They did! 

Before resuming, we let Foremarke Hall run round.

 

Next to greasing the fishplates, we also checked and tightened the bolts with a torque wrench.

 

As we reached the goods shed Foremarke hall departed, and we were able to take another fine, sunny shot of it.

Foremarke Hall by the Broadway goods shed, with rods down, too.

Further along the embankment we saw that the extension of the sewage works has apparently been completed, although it is not yet in service.

 

 

 

Eventually we reached the northern CWR breather, our target for the day. 

This too, was greased very liberally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That allowed us to eat our lunch, which we did at our next port of call - Stanton yard.

The seats were a bit rough though...

 

 

 

 

 

A huge steam cloud and a roaring announced the arrival of P&O, heading north. 

The locomotive was blowing off steam, from the viaduct to Stanton Yard.

We ate our lunch in the sun, and waited for the train to come back from Broadway. This would enable us to work on the track again for about half an hour.

The blossom really is out, and this photograph shows.

The job at Stanton was to pack with the Robels several lengths of track which had shown signs of pumping. It was an easy job; there was plenty of spare ballast to go round.

Towards the end of the afternoon we sipped our usual mugs of tea outside the Coffeepot. This was very busy today, as a train was stationary on P1, due to a reported lineside fire at Bishops Cleeve.

What are all these paint chips on P&S's tender then?

 

The loco ran round, and the train headed back north. 

 

 

We headed back to the yard, where we unloaded the tools as well as some scrap iron, which the flail had (sadly) found along the embankment at Peasebrook. There were four cast iron chairs (hidden in the undergrowth) and a large and heavy trapezoid angle iron frame. This had evidence of being hit by the flail (hopefully at not too great a cost to the flail itself).

The frame was a bit of a mystery. What was it doing on the embankment? We did not recognise it as a railway item.

Monday at Broadway.

 

A gentle day of stripping old paint and varnish off the GWR upholstered bench, prior to re-upholstering by C&W.

 

A raised eyebrow though, as we passed under the road bridge:

 

 

Another bridge strike, or should we say, Strike Protection Beam strike. Wood from what looks like a huge stack of pallets is jammed under the wasp stripes. That beam is certainly doing its job. We used to write down the strikes at Broadway, but stopped when we got to 17.

Stevie Warren told us of another pallet strike, where the whole top row was wiped off and flung onto the opposite carriageway. It was a miracle that no one was hit.

 

We have an advance warning notice, and a huge sign - next to the wasp stripes - warning of 'LOW BRIDGE'. They are ineffective if people load stuff on to lorries and set off without finding out how high the trailer now is.

There is a steady stream of tractor-trailers along this road, every day. Every now and then one brings along a digger on a flatbed. Only a couple of weeks ago we saw one pass the warning sign, and do a 'U' turn right in front of the bridge.

Sheeesh....

 

Last Wednesday we saw a lovely Bentley at Winchcombe.

On Monday it was 'see how the other half lives'. This (Austin 7 ?) is so tiny, is it actually a car? 

The two ladies were looking for a house, nothing to do with the railway.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday at Broadway.

 

More sunshine, and that icy wind again. The canopy gang was back on P2, and trains ran in and out, as the station was open for business. The place was humming.

 

 

 

The opening shot shows John on the corner, by the first window.

 

In the background Neal is getting ready to place the last of the 6 windows along the front. 

We were discussing how much light the waiting room might get, as it has no windows along the back. We think it should be OK, as the sun shines on the front windows almost all day long. There will be a canopy over this area of course, but half of it will be glazed, allowing the sun through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As P&O ran round its train we can see Neal inside the building, where he is preparing the last window frame, ready for placing on the cill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As P&O began to draw away we pushed the window frame through the opening, after which it was righted, and secured at the top with temporary battens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By lunch time the last window frame was in and secure.

As it was quite pleasantly warm (if out of the chilly wind) we decided to have our lunch inside the building. It's the first time the building has been used for anything, so marking another stage in its Phoenix-like rising.

 

 

 

During an afternoon stock take we had a closer look at some of the pallets of bricks we had left. Although covered in shrink fit plastic, water has got in and there is now abundant algae growth, not ideal. 

We decided to cut the plastic off, and allow the packs to breathe. We're going to have to wash all these bricks off now, before being able to use them. They've been here 8 or 10 years; there was no action taken to use them until the canopy gang made their proposal.

 

 

 Opposite we noticed how beautiful the Broadway site is in the spring. These primroses are self seeded.

John laid his usual two mixes worth of bricks. Looking into the sun (apologies for the poor picture) you should be able to see that the end wall was raised a further two courses of reds, taking the wall to 17 courses high.

 

Looking with the sun this time, you can see that two courses were also laid along part of the front, covering two windows. John is just pointing his work here. They'll be back on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

At half past four we packed up to go home, just as the last DMU of the day was about to leave.

 

 

We love the dappled light effect, created by the glazing bars and the riveted roof structure. It's special.

The station staff and DMU guard exchange a few words, before the bubble car sets off into the evening sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 

Well, two of us actually, as Dave is still away.

 

First thing, we went to the old Building & Services shed (which has been there for a very long time, possibly pre-preservation). B&S has been re-named Construction & Maintenance, and moved house to the workshop behind Churchward house. That left the old shed largely disused, and the roof started to leak. We've decided to take it down now, and the mission today was to recover an old enamel sign ('Brooke Bond') and a GWR gate notice (as identified by blog readers). Both of these were put into the care of the RATs trust at Toddington.

 

 

 

Back on the weighbridge, Paul had made himself some guide frames for the slates that we are putting round the skirting area in the hut, to hold back some of the damp. These will be used to hold the second hand slates in place, as he cuts an inch off each side to get rid of the old fixing holes.

 

It was another school outing day, with one large and two smaller buses bringing in children that spent almost the whole day with us. How do the two 'farmers' manage to keep them occupied for so long? When the air raid sirens started up they all started to squeal. Hilarious.

 

The bubble car was busy again today, with between 15 and 30 people in it. It is leaving at the end of the month, as the timetable changes to two steamers, instead of one, and a DMU.

 

 

Then we also had an unexpected visitor, Growler 37 215. It dropped in between trains, being on a test run at the beginning of the season.

 

It left again, almost immediately. It rumbled away and we returned to the weighbridge. Shortly afterwards we heard the bellow - that's the end of station limits reached...

Paul spent the day on his hands and knees, fixing slates to the bottom of the rear wall. Next week the plan is to put a straight line across the top of them, to make them look neater.

At the end of the day we sat outside the Coffeepot and watched the world go by.

 

This included the PWay gang, who dropped in after a busy day at Gretton, where they changed 8 sleepers in one of our last stretches of wooden sleepered track on the railway. One of these days this stretch will be resleepered completely, in CS1 concretes. Possibly during the next non-running season. This stretch is giving us a lot of broken fishplates (as well as life expired sleepers, perhaps not entirely unrelated.)

Tea by the Coffepot is one of the best times of the day.

 

 

Did you spot our April Fool item last time?